STEPHANIE E. GOUDREAU, North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, 320 South Garden Street, Marion, North Carolina 28752, USA

Instream sand and gravel mining in North Carolina requires both state and federal permits in accordance with the Mining Act of 1971 and Clean Water Act of 1977. As a fisheries biologist within the Habitat Conservation Program of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, I routinely review all permit applications for sand and gravel operations in my region and provide comments to the North Carolina Division of Land Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. These regulatory agencies usually incorporate my comments as permit conditions in an effort to minimize potential impacts to fisheries resources resulting from these operations. Instream sand and gravel mining by any method is inherently offensive to a fisheries biologist because it disturbs substrate and stream banks. Fish and other aquatic organisms may be impacted directly by the resuspension of sediment and sand or indirectly when aquatic habitat is modified through loss of gravel and cobble bars and riparian vegetation. I am constantly challenged to provide sound recommendations using professional judgment and literature review rather than site-specific information.